I knock on the door and grip Annabeth's hand nervously.
"Be right there!" A voice shouts from inside the apartment.
My breathing gets more rapid from nerves and unconscious get closer to Annabeth.
My mind is rushing through all the things that can go wrong and I want to leave, to do this another time. Before I can, the door swings open and my mom stands there, dumbfounded.
"Percy?" She whispers.
I give her a small smile and nod.
"Percy!" She sobs pulling Annabeth and I inside.
I let go of Annabeth's hand as my mom hugs me. I hug her back tightly, lowering my head onto my shoulder, fighting back tears. I hold onto her, trying to I make up for all the lost time.
"It's okay mom, it's okay, we're back. We won," I mumble into her hair.
I hear her sniffling and I feel overwhelming guilt. My tears finally start to fall but I try and blink them away. When I hear Paul walk in, I pull away and hurry back to Annabeth just before my mom pulls her into a hug as well. I wipe the tears from my cheek and go up to Paul.
"Thank you, for taking care of her. I wish I could have, I wish none of this ever happened," I tell him quietly.
He nods as he hugs me too. When the tearful reunion is over, my mom ushers us into the living room. Annabeth and I sit down as my mom and Paul sit across from us. I see my mom acknowledging how close Annabeth and I are, but she says nothing.
"So, what happened?" My mom asks.
Annabeth and I give pained smiles, we had already agreed to not talk about Tartarus, at lead not yet. We begin our tale of woes, excluding bits and pieces here and there. We talk about how I lost my memory, which she knew, but also about the Roman camp and all the new people and traveling to Rome and Greece and the Athena Parthenos. We talk about how we defeated the Giants and how the Romans almost destroyed Camp Half-Blood. We finish with how Gaea was killed by Leo and how Leo is dead (A/N: He has yet to return).
Paul and my mom sit in a stunned silence and I can't help but to think that they didn't even hear the worst part. My mom is crying and I feel bad, so I reach out and grab her hand reassuringly.
"Oh, m-my baby, and Annabeth, I'm so sorry, I don't know what to say," my mom stutters out.
"Sally, it's okay. You couldn't have helped any more than we could have avoided it," Annabeth says.
My mom nods, wiping her tears. We sit in a sad silence for a few moments before my mom stands.
"Well, I'm going to make dinner," she says, sighing and heading toward the kitchen.
Annabeth stands to follow, offering her help. They get to work in the kitchen and I stand too, hoping to convince my mom to make some of it blue. Paul stops me, putting his hand on my shoulder.
"Percy, I- I'm sorry, and you're so brave," he says, then walks away as though it never happened.
I follow him into the kitchen and see my mom already with the blue food dye in hand. I smirk and walk up behind Annabeth, leaning my head on her shoulder. She swats at me, but still smiles.
"If you're going to be in here, at least help," she states, handing me a bowl of potatoes and a peeler.
Soon enough, my mom has managed a full meal. I set down the last plate and we all talk our seats and start serving food. I take on my role as a human vacuum and start inhaling food. Annabeth stares at me, confused on how I manage to eat so much in so little time. I'm sure I look like a chipmunk considering I'm halfway through my plate before everyone else has had three bites.
"Percy slow down, surely there was food on the ship you were on?" My mom jokes.
"Yeah, but in Tartarus there isn't much but fire water and monster dust," I retort without thinking.
All I hear is the clink of forks hitting plates and then silence. I don't understand at first until I realize what I said. I look up and see my mom and Paul staring at us in horror again. I grab Annabeth's hand from under the table and let out a nervous laugh.
"What?" My mom whispers.
"Um, we may have left out a portion of our journey," I say.
"You were in Tartarus?" Paul asks.
I nod slowly, "When, uh, Annabeth got the Athena Parthenos, she was tangled in webs, and we got dragged into Tartarus by Arachne. We escaped through the doors of death with the help of Bob and Damasen. Tartarus himself tried to kill us but we got out, barely," I say quietly, trying to avoid as much detail as possible.
"Who are Bob and Damasen?" My mom asks.
"Bob is the former Titan Iapetus and Damasen is a giant," I say, trying to make it clear that's all I want to say.
I lol over and see Annabeth crying silently so I stand up and pull her away. We're almost out of the room but I turn my head to them, but meeting their eyes, and speak, "I'm sorry we didn't tell you, but we didn't want to talk about it. Tartarus is your worst nightmare. It's a living, breathing, nightmare," I say, and pull Annabeth from the room.